Exam 6: Creating the World of the Play

If you were to write a play about a family you know (your own or another), what point of view would you take? Why? Are there strongly opposed forces or balanced forces in this family?

After watching a popular film, describe how the opening scene aids in setting the action. Identify one or two of the complications in the film. Can you discuss the film's point of view?

A playwright, composer, or architect who envisions a work sets about putting the idea into a that will be recognizable to those who will bring the idea to ultimate realization.

Every medium presents a story differently according to what options are available to it. Discuss how various media differ in this regard. For instance, how does a novel differ from a play? How does a movie differ from a play?

An example of point of view in film might be the various angles of vision and perspectives that the camera selects for us.

An outside force or new twist in the plot introduced at an opportune moment is a(n)

Describe an event, from personal experience, which was viewed differently by two different people. What accounts for the differences? Is one interpretation more "true" than the other?

Two periods that were particularly conducive to the creation of tragic drama were the eighteenth century (the age of enlightenment) and the nineteenth century (the century of progress).

A selection and arrangement of scenes from a story is called a

The action of a play is generally confined to a "world" of its own-that is, to a fictional universe that contains all the characters and events of the play-and none of the characters or actions moves outside the orbit of that world. This is an example of limited time.

How do you feel at a sporting event that ends in a tie or is stopped because of bad weather? How does this apply to drama?

In the Greek tragedy Medea by Euripides, Medea murders her children to get revenge on her husband Jason, who has betrayed her. Why might this ancient Greek play still be meaningful for a twenty-first century audience in the United States of America? Instead of producing the play with actors using masks and cothornous (wooden shoes with tall heels) as they did in ancient Greece, how might you produce such a play to make it more meaningful to a contemporary audience?

An impediment that is put in a character's way is called a(n)

Both Bertolt Brecht and Thornton Wilder were greatly influenced by Asian theatre. Discuss the various influences on their work. Do you see any of these influences in contemporary theatre practice today?

Explain how people define themselves in terms of action. "We get to know people not by what they say or who they are but by what they do." Discuss in terms of daily life and personal experience.

Many times, playwrights use historical and cultural events as the basis for their plays. Discuss how the playwright's personal viewpoint might affect the way he or she presents the story. For instance, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible during the McCarthy era, when he and many of his friends were being accused of being communist sympathizers. LeRoi Jones wrote about race relations in Dutchman, Larry Kramer about the advent of the AIDS crisis in New York City in The Normal Heart, David Henry Hwang asks what race really means in Yellow Face, and Lorraine Hansberry wrote about the aspirations of the Younger family in A Raisin in the Sun. How do the playwright's personal viewpoints appear in their plays?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined this statement regarding a playwright's point of view: "The world is a comedy to those that think and a tragedy to those that feel."

"To reinforce religious beliefs" is a

"To present events as heroic" is a

"To portray a story in a comic manner" is a